Eleven Late String Quartets, Opp. 74, 76 and 77, Complete Review

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(More customer reviews)As a musicology student on a budget, I've acquired quite a few Dover scores over the last years. They may be slightly antiquated in many cases, but there's simply no one who can match their prices.

This book, though, represents Dover at their very finest. While the standardized set up for orchestral scores have changed vastly over the years, string quartets have basically remained unchanged since the conception of the form. The only "challenge", from a modern point of view, is reading the violas alto clef, which anyone interested in string quartets should be acquainted with in any case.

The print itself is among the best I've seen from Dover. The edition appears to be an enlarged miniature score, making it very comfortable to follow, and leaves plenty of space for writing notes/analyzes etc. The print itself is very nice, a lot better than my Op. 20 & 33 (Also from Dover), where each print appears to have random flaws that make some few notes almost unreadable. Unlike the 20/33 score, the paper in this score can heavy-handed use of rubbers without erasing any of the print, which of course is a huge plus for people who buy scores like this with the intention of analyzing pieces. (Please notice: This score was bought from a local violin store, where it probably had been sitting for years -at least the price I got it for suggested so-. The printing quality of newer versions MAY be different from this one, although I have no way of telling at the moment)

This print is an old Eulenburg edition, which are known for quality. I have only found one flaw that twarts Haydn's intentions in this edition: I know for a fact that Haydn never put dynamic markings in the variations movement in the Emperor quartet; while I can't say so for certain, it is likely to assume that this should be the case at least for some of the other movements in the book as well. This certainly isn't a big deal, but it does obscure part of Haydn's genius: In this case, he didn't need dynamic markings to bend the player to his will. The points where one should increase or decrease playing strength is embedded in the musical material, and he controls the string quartet to such a degree that different dynamics are never required to get the intended voice into the foreground. I've yet to find any misprints.

This, of course, isn't really a big deal. I suspect that the people who would want this book are people interested in following along with recording or performances, or people who intend to use it for analytical purposes. Naturally, I wouldn't recommend it for performance. The notes are large enough to be viewed at a distance, but it would require way more page turns than required, and these are often put at awkward places. I imagine that it would work well with PhotoScore or similar software though, so you could probably make single-instrument scores out of it with relative ease.

So, unless you want the latest scholarly urtext edition, or want separate parts, this is as good as it gets. At this price, it should be a no-brainer.

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Product Description:
This volume includes 11 string quartets in complete score - Haydn's last and best.Reprinted from the reliable modern Eulenburg edition.

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